And still, lawmakers have not been able to change how the program works, or eliminate it altogether.

State Assemblyman Jeff Miller, R-Corona, is the latest lawmaker to take a shot. He's proposing legislation aimed at closing a loophole that can amount to a free pass on citations for the millions of motorists who have confidential plates.

Assembly bill 2097 would require motorists who have confidential license plates to give the DMV up-to-date work addresses so that when they get a citation for speeding or double parking, police will know where to send it.

The program was designed more than 30 years ago to protect police officers and their families from criminals seeking to find them through the DMV. Since then, state lawmakers have expanded the program to cover hundreds of thousands of public employees - from police dispatchers to museum guards to the legislators themselves.

The Register's investigation found that the safeguards are unnecessary today because updated laws make all DMV information confidential to the public.

Furthermore, the program allows officials with protected plates to evade traffic tickets because identifying an accurate address to mail citations is often so cumbersome that police run out of time to identify an address or dismiss the citations instead of looking, the investigation found. Or, the motorists get off with a warning because their protected status signals police that they are pulling over one of their own.

Miller's bill would address the problem of where to mail citations by requiring the DMV to maintain current business addresses for motorists who have protected plates. Right now, the DMV only maintains the name of the agency, so if police want to send a motorist a ticket, they've got to look up the address.

And that doesn't always happen with automated systems, such as toll roads and red light cameras.

Requiring folks to provide up to date addresses also would make sure that citations don't get lost in massive agencies. For example, if California Highway Patrol officer from Santa Ana gets a citation, the ticket won't be sent to CHP's Sacramento office.

And, if the bill is passed, folks with confidential license plates won't be able to renew their vehicle registration until they pay for outstanding citations mailed to their place of work.

That sounds good to the Watchdog. But we wonder: If state officials say this program isn't needed at all, and there's still opportunities to abuse it even with these changes, why not scrap the program altogether?

Miller's legislative director Johannes Escudero explained in an email that Miller, being against new or increased taxes, charged his staff with identifying new revenue sources that could help offset the state budget crisis.

While researching another bill, Escudero stumbled across the Register investigation and noted all the uncollected toll road and red light camera violations in Orange County -- "revenue that, if collected, could replace some of the much-needed transportation funds that have been raided repeatedly in recent years."

"Whether or not the confidential license plate program is needed is debatable, but an issue that the Governor is not willing to consider at this time," Escudero said. "As you may recall, the Governor vetoed a similar bill authored by form Assemblyman Spitzer over the fact that his measure would have removed the confidentiality factor."

(Updated 3/19/10) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did veto a bill proposed by former Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, R-Orange, in 2008. But that bill didn't try to scrap the program or eliminate confidentiality in any way. It just would have given law enforcement unlimited time to pursue traffic tickets doled out to public employees who participate in the program so that police would have sufficient time to track down appropriate addresses. And it would have allowed non-law enforcement agencies, such as toll road agencies, access to the confidential addresses so they could pursue citations.

Miller's is scheduled to be heard in transportation committee April 5. Stay tuned to see what happens.

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